Last night and this morning, Head Coach Doug presented this year’s Winter National Qualifiers with their commemorative Winter National Championships Shirts.
A really big well done to all the swimmers for achieving the qualifying times for Winter Nationals. It’s not an easy competition to qualify for, as there are only two age groups, and the qualifying times are really quite difficult. Achieving these times comes from hours and hours of dedicated and focused training, morning and night.
Events qualified for, by swimmer (In alphabetical order):
James Cooper: 50 Back, 100 Back, 200 Back, 50 Free, 200 Free and 400 Free
Mason Hunnisett: 50 Fly, 100 Fly and 200 Fly
Macy Lawrence: 50 Free and 100 Free
Sam Perks: 50 Back, 100 Back, 200 Back, 50 Fly and 100 Fly
Vejune Petraityte: 50 Breast, 100 Breast and 200 Breast
Gus Veasey: 400 Individual Medley
Ellie Wheeler: 200 Back, 200 Individual Medley and 400 Individual Medley
Jack Williams: 50 Breast
Well done to our Head Coach, Doug Campbell for his efforts in taking the raw talent in these young swimmers and shaping them into national-level athletes. We are often very quick to congratulate the swimmers, but we mustn’t forget the experience, skill and professionalism of their coach.
I also think it’s worth mentioning a big thank you to Kevin Wheeler for sourcing a sponsor to pay for the shirts and Sue Perks for arranging for the shirts to be printed. It’s a really big deal to qualify for an event like this, and doing so justifies a high level of recognition and reward. Receiving a commemorative shirt from your club is an incredibly effective way of rewarding the swimmers for their hard effort, whilst simultaneously creating heroes for our younger swimmers to look up to and be inspired by. On top of that, it also creates an amazingly cost effective advertisement for our club, which in turn helps encourage more talent to consider training with us.
And last but not least, to our sponsor, Oakleigh Blue. Every time we send swimmers to a national event, where the best amateur swimmers Britain has to offer assemble to race, the club is handed a privileged opportunity on a plate. There are many clubs out there, who, for one reason or another, cannot boast to have swimmers parading their club’s logo poolside at a national event. Keith Allen, (pictured with our Winter Nationals qualifiers below), was kind enough to sponsor the cost of the Winter Nationals shirts. Without this sponsorship the shirts would not have existed this year, so a massive thank to Keith and everyone at Oakleigh Blue for their kind generosity.
